Happy Holidays
by Sqully
Summary: ..Trick or Treat..It goes through Halloween and Christmas, I deleted this once before, but I promise to finish it. Squffie, CloudAerith, RikuZephyr, SoraOC
1. 1:Psychopathicaxmen

**Happy Holidays**

**Chapter one: Psychopathic-ax-men**

**Disclaimer: I don't own them, okay?**

(A/N: **Alright, I plan on finally finishing this story.I really don't know who would still want to read it, but hey, a girl can dream. **This starts off with Halloween, and will move on to Christmas as the plot thickens.)

Yuffie slid to the ground panting. She was being chased by some guy with an ax, and to say the least, she was scared out of her wits. Looking over to the opening of the alley, a figure stepped in, to the side it was holding an ax, which moonlight bounced off of.

"Shit, shit, shit," Yuffie muttered to herself, frantically thinking about how to get out, and away from this psychopathic-ax-man. Noticing a low balcony, she looked over at a clothes line. Bingo! She could get onto the clothes line then continue to the balcony. She looked back over to the figure, he was gone.

"Fuck!" she said quietly. She stood up and something moved behind her. She froze, she could hear shallow breathing behind her, and was sure that he could hear her heart beating, faster, and faster. Oh, my god kept flashing through her eyes, well I mean her life. She slowly turned around, eyes wide. And. . . .

Screaming she fell backwards scrambled up and ran as fast as she could the opposite direction, still screaming by the way. He was gaining on her as she exited the alley, running through the dark street of the 3rd district. Tripping she fell and turned around on the ground as the psychopathic-ax-man brought the ax down upon her.

Screeching, Yuffie sat upright quickly in the bed. A hand flew over her mouth shutting her up. The hand gradually left her mouth as she took deep breaths trying to calm her self down. She felt Leon's arm go around her shoulders.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly.

"I-I'm fine," she said quietly, "it was. . . a dream."

"Not that ax-man one again?" he asked disbelievingly.

Nodding, Yuffie leaned her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes.

"I-it seemed so real, except for the end, the part where he brings the ax down on me," she felt Leon slightly tense, "I feel no pain, because I wake up," she finished. Suddenly feeling extremely tired, she moves under the blankets so she's cuddled next to him sitting up. Leon slowly lies down taking her with him, tucking the blankets around them. He looks down at her, and smoothes some hair away from her still sweaty face.

"Sweet dreams," he whispers.

Yuffie sits down on the bed, opening her diary, Leon's helping Cloud and Cid with Sora's gummiship. So she's taking this time to write in her diary.

Oct. 29

Dear Diary,

It's almost Halloween, and I'm patiently awaiting it. Sora's here and will be here for Halloween as well. Riku and Kairi are also here, they had been traveling home when the gummiship started to malfunction, and Traverse Town was the nearest world. Lately, well for the last fortnight, I've had these dreams, no nightmares, and every time, I wake up screaming. In the dream, I'm being chased by a psychopathic-ax-man, and it really scares me. Now, it takes a lot to scare me, and believe me, it's enough. I know I'm waking up Squall every night; I'm surprised he hasn't fallen asleep during breakfast every morning, but he wouldn't show such weakness. I've asked him repeatedly if he wants me to sleep in Cids shop, but he insists that he wants to be with me to comfort me when I wake up. Which is really sweet. I love him so much! Speak of the devil, I hear him coming, so I've got to go. Bye!

Yuffie close her diary, and quickly hides it under the mattress. She looks up as he enters the room.

"Hey," He greets as he walks into the room. "We're eating at the café tonight."

Standing up, she rolls her eyes, "we always eat in the café." A smile tugs at her lips.

He walks over to her, and wraps his arms around her waist and looks down at her as she in turn wraps her arms around his neck.

"Do you always have to have a comment?" He asked quietly.

Leaning against him to rise higher, she inquires quietly, almost whispering, "Do you always have to state the obvious?" He just nods and leans down and softly kisses her.

At that exact moment, the door is thrown open as a giant, but short, purple hairy thing walks in like a sumo wrestler, growling by the way. Pulling away slightly, Yuffie rolled her eyes, then rested her head on Leon's chest, muttering, "Oh god, not this again."

"I'm coming for your flesh!" he growls, trying to sound scary and frightening, and not succeeding at all.

"Sora, it's not Halloween, yet, why do you insist on wearing that hideous outfit?" Yuffie asked, now sitting on the bed. 'How does she know that's Sora?' Leon thinks to himself, 'Weird.' Shaking his head he leans against the wall; what Yuffie calls his, -Leon-Wall-of-Stone-Lean-.

"Don't you know what I'm supposed to be?" Comes Sora's muffled voice.

"No, and we really don't give a sh-" Yuffie cuts him off, "No, what are you supposed to be." Now staring sternly at Leon. Rolling his eyes, Leon walks into the bathroom, and closes the door, rather sharply.

"Big baby," Yuffie mutters, crossing her arms over her chest. She looks back at Sora expectantly, at this Sora looks confused at what she wanted.

"What?"

"Your costume dingbat!" Yuffie yelled, and hears a chuckle from within the bathroom.

"Shut up Squall!" The young women yelled, throwing a pillow at the door.

"That's Leon!" he yelled back.

"Ughhhhhhhhhhh!" She yelled, stomping out of the room, making the door shutter along with the walls.

"Wait!" Sora called after her, "I, I'm, a mutated barney," saying the last part quietly. Hearing the toilet flush, Sora's eyes widen, and he flees, as fast as his costume can allow him. Leon came out of the bathroom, tripping on the pillow, upon not seeing Sora; he smiled, and calmly walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Oct. 30

Dear Diary,

One more day! I'm so excited, only I have a slight problem, I sorta don't have a costume. And Sora isn't helping either. Every couple of minutes he shows up in a different costume. So far, he's been, a mutated barney, sardine, lamppost, clock, lime green kangaroo, a white gummibear, a striped t-shirt, George Washington, a crumpled up piece of paper, a whale, fish, dog, superman, Ansem, Riku, me, Squall, Aerith, Cloud, Kairi, a dead log, crow, a goat, pencil, a PS2, a pile of horse manure, a trash can, a piece of cheese, a bottle, a crayon, (yellow) a colored finger nail, a foot, a key, King Mickey, the Keyblade, Cid, and last but certainly not least, a cork. Of course when he was "Squall,", the real Squall stuffed him in a trash can, but we got him out safely. I wonder what he will come up with next. Today, Cid was working under the gummiship, and I silently crept up on him, and at the top of my lungs screamed, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! He yelped and tried to sit up, but only succeeded in banging his head on the ship. As I ran away I could hear him cursing, "Goddamnit Yuffie!", I think were his exact words. It's so much fun to mess with him. Well, it's almost dinner time, I've got to go, bye!

Yuffie closed her diary and hid it under the mattress, stood up, and headed out the door, towards the cafe.

-

After dinner, Leon and Yuffie were up in their room, getting ready for bed, when the rain started up again, this week, for the 6th time. Groaning, Leon took his shirt off, then went and laid down on the bed, silently watching the rain pour harder and harder. Yuffie was in the bathroom changing, when she came out, she saw Leon, and how handsome he looked ran through her mind repeatedly. She walked over to the bed, and got on it, and under the blankets, curling up next to him. As he put an arm around her, she leaned her head on his shoulder, both wordlessly watching the rain.

When suddenly, Yuffie heard a tapping sound.

Whispering, she asked Leon, "Squall?"

"Leon."

Not noticing what he had said, she asked, still whispering, "Do you hear that tapping sound?" Now looking worried.

"It's probably nothing, just the wind and rain."

Sitting up, Yuffie, now looking positively terrified, said, barely audible, "but Squall, there is no wind," (Twilight Zone music starts)

Eyes widening, Leon slowly turned his head toward her, then, at the same time, both turned their heads toward the balcony doors as lightning flashed, and the tapping continued. . .


	2. 2:The Bathroom Is Down The Hall To

**Happy Holidays**

**Chapter 2: The Bathroom Is Down The Hall To The Left**

**Disclaimer: I don't own them, but I write about them, so sue me! Wait, don't! . . . Damnit!**

**(A/N: Hey guys! Oh my god, it's a bird, no it's a hanglider, no, it's SORA!)**

Whistling, Sora skipped down the street, stopped, then started humming, what he thought was "Halloween Bells" to the tune of Jingle Bells. I know he's sad.

"Hallo bells, hallo bells. Jump! Spook! Booo! Tra la la la la la la la la la la la laaaaaaaaaaaa!" Yes, he wrote the words, but, fortunately, that's all, he's written, and lets hope it stays that way.

Going back to humming, Sora entered the café, looked around and didn't see Cid, he needed to discuss the minor damage of his ship. Shrugging, he left, heading for Cid's shop.

Upon entering it, he stopped. Somebody had turned the light off. He turned around, and then flipped the switch. Nothing happened. Starting to panic, Sora slowly looked around the dark room. He stood there, frozen to the spot; he was too scared to move. Then, he heard a movement to the left of him. Too chicken to look over there, she clenched his eyes closed, whispering, "Please, please, please go away, please leave me alone," over, and over, and over again.

In a flash of invisible lightning, something lunged at Sora, causing Sora to shriek like a teenage girl. The dark figure knocked Sora over, now on top of him, they rolled, then moonlight shone in to show sharp fangs, dripping with blood, but he couldn't see the face.

Narrator: Hi, sorry to just break in here like this, but I just wanted to clarify a few things. Now, Sora thinks it's a vampire, after his blood, and he's still screaming like a girl. Got it? Good, just making sure you're still with me. Okay, proceed, with caution.

The "vampire" jumped off of Sora, now breathing heavily, and stood over him, Now, Sora, who's about to pee his pants, has curled himself into a ball, waiting to die. Narrator scoffs When suddenly, another dark figure appeared apparently out of nowhere. This one was smaller, and slimmer. Now, even more scared Sora pushed himself against the wall, trying to disappear, through it. It wasn't working.

Meanwhile, Yuffie and Leon were behind the counter, trying not to laugh. When Sora had first screamed (like a girl), Leon had had to cover Yuffie's mouth when she had started to snort, like a pig, might I add. Starting another giggling fit, Yuffie stuffed her fist in her mouth.

She felt a finger poking her head, and she looked up, Leon motioned to her that it was time; he silently threw the white blanket over her head as she fought herself to remain quiet. Leon got down on all fours, head low, as Yuffie, silently, and carefully, got on Leon's shoulders, and adjusted the blanket around him. Waiting for the signal, Leon stayed still. Then, he felt Yuffie tap his shoulder, it's a go. Very carefully, so Yuffie wouldn't go tumbling off, Leon slowly rose, and Yuffie made a moaning/booing sound. As they appeared, with Yuffie's arms raised, Sora's eyes widened and he screamed again, trying his best to push himself through the wall. When the lights flickered on, and somebody appeared at the bottom of the ladder, a very angry looking Aerith.

With that, the light had shown the "vampire" as Riku, and Kairi, fortunately, Sora had fainted before he had seen them. Groaning, Leon took the blanket off, and picked Yuffie off of his shoulders, and let her slide to the ground, but kept his arms around her. Yuffie had her arms crossed, and was pouting.

"Aerith!" she whined," What, in god's name, possessed you to do that?" she demanded.

"You guys are cruel," Aerith said heatedly, pointing at Sora, "Just look at him, you terrified him to death!" Riku walked over to Sora, and then looked back at Aerith.

"Hefs stilf breafing!" Riku said, talking through his false teeth.

Aerith put her hands on her hips, staring sternly at him. Rolling his eyes, Riku slowly took his "vampire" teeth out.

"Now, what did you say?" she said sternly.

"Uh oh," Yuffie whispered to Leon, "Aerith's going maternal on us." She and Leon broke up into silent laughter at this, but when Aerith looked over at them, they hid it quite well. She looked back at Riku, waiting.

Sighing, Riku said, "He is still breathing," saying every word carefully.

Looking satisfied for the moment, Aerith walked over to Sora, and knelt down next to him.

At this moment, Leon and Yuffie chose to make an exit. Leaving the shop, they let out the laughter that they had been holding in. After the laughter subsided, they continued to chuckle as they, holding hands, continued towards the hotel.

Slowly opening his eyes, Sora saw swimming shapes above him, the he felt someone put something damp, and cold on his forehead. He blinked a few times, and then put his hand to his head.

"Wheresthevampire?" Sora asked, slurring his speech, Aerith rolled her eyes, and then turned around to stare at Riku and Kairi, who were sitting on the couch in Cid's Shop that wasn't occupied by Sora.

Grinning, Riku stood up then walked over to Sora.

"It's gone, you fought him of-"Aerith swatted him.

"No you didn't Sora, don't listen to him, as a matter of fact," Aerith said turning her head slightly to look at Riku, "Riku was the va-"Kairi cut her off, "Yeah! Riku was the vampire!" Sora's eyes widened, and he slowly turned his head to look at Riku, unbelievingly. Eyes still wide, and mouth open, Sora suddenly lunged at Riku, knocking him over on to the floor.

"It was just a joke!" Riku pleaded, as Sora attempted to strangle him, "I was just messing around! I swear! Come on!" Slightly panting and pink in the face, Sora got off of Riku, eyes widened, then, hand flying to his mouth, turned around, and sprinted towards the bathroom. Sighing, Kairi put her hand down, and helped Riku up. He brushed himself off, looked after Sora, and then looked at the door.

"I'm going to go find, um," He cleared his throat nervously, blushing, "Well, yeah, seeya." At this, he turned around, and made a hasty exit.

In unison, Aerith and Kairi crossed their arms in front of their chests. Hearing vomiting in the distance, they both sighed, and Aerith followed behind Kairi to the bathroom.

Yuffie cautiously opened the door to their hotel room, and then upon not seeing anybody, she looked back at Leon.

"Squall, shouldn't we sleep in Cid's shop tonight?"

"It's Leon, and there's nothing to be afraid of."

"But, what if-"He cut her off.

"But nothing, the tapping stopped, it won't return, okay?" Not really believing him, she proceeded into the room.

About an hour later, Yuffie lay in a sleeping Leon's arms. Although she wasn't sleeping at all, her eyes were wide with paranoia. She was too scared to go to sleep. Another hour went by, and her eye lids began to close, slowly then finally she settled back into Leon, and fell asleep.

Exactly two hours and fifteen minutes later, Yuffie's eyes popped open. There was a tapping sound on the balcony doors. Sitting up, she carefully took Leon's arms off from around her. She got up and walked over to the doors, and opened them quietly. Sticking her head through the doors, she peeked out, not seeing anybody, she stepped out and looked around once more, shrugging, she turned to head back in when she saw something out of the corner of her eyes, and she saw movement. Fully turning her head, she saw a figure jump down into the alley below.

She ran to the railing and watched as the figure ran out of the alley to disappear into the night. Grinning, Yuffie jumped off of the balcony and landed on a pile of crates not far from the ground, then continued to the ground, and started running to the other side of the alley.

Turning left, like the person, she squinted to see the figure turn into another alley. Upon entering the alley, she stopped, breathing hard, and heart beating fast. Looking around, Yuffie didn't see anything, but thought she also heard slight panting.

Unknown to Yuffie, the person was behind a pile of crates about 5 feet from the entrance, and about 3 feet from Yuffie. The person began to rise, and carefully climbed onto the top of the crates, as Yuffie inspected the other side of the alley. Rising to jump off into the street, the crate creaked, and Yuffie whipped around to see the figure jump to a pile of crates in front of her. Moonlight showed the person flip her head and send a mane of long black hair everywhere. The person seemed to be wearing big cloths. About to ask who he/she was, a big figure came out of nowhere, (Narrator: the street, but nowhere sounds cooler) tackling the person, they went tumbling into the pile of crates. Gasping, Yuffie ran over, tearing through crates, she stopped and her mouth dropped open and her eyes grew wide. It was Leon, and he had tackled. . .

"ZEPHYR!"


	3. 3:I was Not Scared

**Happy Holidays**

**Chapter Three: I was _Not_ Scared**

**Disclaimer: See chapter one before I shove that shovel down your throat.**

Yuffie stood with her arms crossed, staring angrily at Zephyr's back. Zephyr sat in the chair, looking quite smug, with a smirk planted on her face. She tilted her head slightly to the right to see Leon leaning against the wall, arms also crossed, staring coldly at her. As she turned to look at him, his eyes narrowed. At this her smirk disappeared, and she narrowed her eyes. Rolling her eyes, Yuffie walked over to Leon, and stood between them staring at Zephyr.

"Why in gods fucking name did you do THAT!" Yuffie exploded, throwing her arms up in the air.

After about three minutes of silence, Yuffie walked over to Zephyr, standing right in front of her and glared at her.

"You scared the living shit out of Squall and me!"

"Hey!" Leon exclaimed, "Excuse me, I was NOT scared! I was only worrying for you!"

"Whatever" Yuffie said still glaring daggers at Zephyr.

"I thought it would be amusing!" Zephyr demanded. Then, eyes sparkling, meeting Yuffie's eyes, said,

"And believe me, it was soooooooo funny!" Growling, Yuffie turned around quickly, and left, Leon who was about to leave, paused, "I wasn't scared."

Hearing his mutter, Zephyr rolled her eyes, and loud enough for him to hear said, "Bullshit."

Wanting to find Yuffie, he ignored her, and left. Hearing the footsteps die, Zephyr leaned back in her chair, "you can come out now."

Yuffie walked quickly out of the room and speed walked down the hall, she froze at Cloud's and Aerith's room, hearing giggling and then moaning. And evil grin plastered itself on her face as she gently turned the knob, to see if it was locked, nope! She peered inside and tried to stifle her laughter. Then, she closed the door, then opened it at full swing, then said, faking it of course, "I was just-"She looked up, eyes widening, then started screaming 'oh my eyes!'. Aerith screamed and rolled right off the bed, the sheets wrapping around her. This was probably a good thing, because it covered her up. Cloud was already getting dressed, and then with pants and shirt on, he pulled on his boots and started chasing her. Grinning, she turned around and sped out of the room down the stairs, and out of the hotel, with Cloud hot on her heels.

Leon, who had watched Yuffie run out being chased by an enraged Cloud, looked into the room, he noticed Aerith struggling to get up with all of the blankets surrounding her. He quickly helped her up, asking her what happened. She told him, and he excused himself, and ran out of the room. Yuffie took it just too far this time.

"What the hell did you do?" Cid yelled at Yuffie, who was being tailed by Cloud around Cid's shop.

"Walked in on the bunnies while they were doing IT!" Cid just looked confused. She grinned as Cloud dove for her, but she jumped up and somersaulted off the couch. Jumping up, she ran to the ladder, and swiftly climbed up and closed the trap door, and locked it.

"What did she mean by IT?" Cid asked Cloud as he pounded on the trap door.

"God! You know, IT?" Cid's eyes enlarged, "Oh! IT, gotcha!"

Growling in frustration, Cloud started cursing blackly.

Cid looked at the window, seeing Leon, he pointed up, and Leon nodded.

Yuffie was trying to figure a way out, since the door in the ceiling that leads to the roof is too high for her to reach. Just then, she heard footsteps, rather clumsy footsteps above her. Then the door opened, Leon came down, hoisted her up, and then went through himself. He closed it, and then turned to Yuffie.

"Trying to get your self killed?" She nodded. He laughed as he led her off of the roof, sliding down to the crates, she turned around as Yuffie put her hands on his shoulders, his hands rested on her waist, and he brought her to him, keeping his arms around her. Smiling sweetly, she softly kissed him on the lips.

Cloud froze, stopped his ranting and banging, and listened, hearing footsteps retreating on the roof, his eyes narrowed, Leon. . . Just then, Aerith appeared.

"Cloud!" He looked down at her, eyes softer and wide. "Will you get down from there before you get yourself hurt!" He climbed down and walked over to her.

"I'm sorry, she's just so, so"

"Annoying?" Aerith filled in for him.

"Yeah, come on." They left together, arms around each other's waist.

Sora walked miserably through the Third District. Kairi. . . She hadn't picked him, or Riku, she claimed that she didn't want to pick either, she wants to stay friends, in other words, she doesn't want anyone hurt. Well, now we are hurt, well at least I am, Sora thought to him self, I don't know about Riku, but I can see something in his eyes. He loves her just as much as I do. He suddenly felt someone bump into him; he looked up, but saw nobody close to him. Weird, he thought. His eyes, now not staring at the ground, widened as a girl, no woman, not much older than himself, walked out of a store. To Sora, everything seemed to go in slow motion, the woman, shook her long tresses of glossy brown hair. Sora watched as her hair twirled around her body majestically. As she stopped, she slipped her sunglasses on, and straightened her black leather purse on her shoulder. She stepped off the side walk, and started walking across the street. She had on a beautiful a shade of green dress, sleeveless, that went down to just above her knees, with matching shoes. As she walked, her hips swayed with the rhythm of her footsteps, as her hair moved in the breeze. Curls surrounded her face, cascading down to about the middle of her back. Brown eyes sparkled as the sun bounced off of her sunglasses. Sora, who had his mouth hanging open, blinked a few times, okay a lot of times, to make sure he wasn't seeing things. He got out of the way of the bustling crowd, and backed up against a wall, as he watched the young woman walk up to a store across the street from him, as she got to the door, she paused, and turned around, looking right at Sora. He gulped, he couldn't tell if she was looking at him or not, her sunglasses weren't exactly helping the matter. She smiled, her face lighting up, she then turned around, and continued into the store, the door closing behind her. Sora clutched at his shirt, right above his heart, as he gulped again. Had a beautiful young woman just smile at me? Sora asked himself excitedly. His thoughts roamed a bit, then rested on one question.

Was that an angel?


	4. 4:Mandolyn

**Happy Holidays**

**Chapter Four: Mandolyn**

**Disclaimer: Disney and SquareSoft own them, or whatever their name is, okay? Except for Zephyr, who is owned by Vulpes Lapis and one more thing, if you have no IDEA who or what Zephyr is, you can go to hell. Peace!**

(A/N: Anyways, this chapter is mostly focused on Sora, but not ALL on Sora. So enjoy!)

Turning around, he felt a rush of wind. Facing a bright light, he felt the wind blowing around him, rustling his cloths and hair. He squinted his eyes as a figure drew nearer. A great gust of wind hit him as he saw a beautiful woman, no angel, no woman, no angel; he couldn't make up his mind. Her golden dress billowed around her heaveningly. Her brown hair whirled behind her even though the wind blew the other direction. As if floating, she stopped right in front of him, smiling she gently dipped her head down, and softly kissed his lips. Looking up, she gently ran her hand down the side of his face. Just as suddenly as she appeared, she was being blown backwards by an unknown force. Just as she was just about to disappear in the golden clouds, someone, maybe she, whispered something.

"Mandolyn. . ."

Sora awoke with a start, looking around dazedly. He slowly put his hand to his mouth. The details from the wonderful dream were slipping through his mind like water through a sift. As all the details disappeared through a hazy cloud of smoke, he fell back on the bed, now depressed. Closing his eyes, he tried hard to remember the dream, but nothing came. Wondering if he even had the dream, started to become relevant. Succumbing to sleepiness once again, the darkness whirled around him.

"Shhh! Be quiet!" She said giggling helplessly. Hiding his smile, Leon looked back to his hand of cards, apparently thinking quite hard. "Hurry up!" Yuffie said impatiently. "Hold on, these things take time." He looked back to his cards, then back at the scattered cards on the floor, and then back to his own cards. Rolling her eyes, she looked down to her own cards.

"Okay," Leon said looking up, "Do you have a 7?"

Grinning, Yuffie shook her head, "Nope, go fish."

"Damnit!" Leon cursed. Giggling, Yuffie whispered yelled to him, "Shhhhhh! Keep your voice down before Cloud comes in hear and kills you!" She looked down to her own cards, then thinking deeply, looked back at Leon, "Do you have a, uh, um, jack?" Not hearing an answer, she looked back up to him as the candle flickered out, leaving them in pitch darkness, gasping, she felt movement and arms wrapping around her from the side. Dropping her cards, she turned and met his lips, wrapping her own arms around his neck; they fell back kissing passionately. On top of him, Yuffie brought her head up to breath and set her head on his chest, getting comfortable. Stroking her hair, his other hand stayed on her waist, keeping her from rolling off. She suddenly looked up at him, grinning.

"What?" He asked softly. "I won," she said bringing her head down toward his. You could just make out, "The hell you did," before they're lips met again.

The next morning, Aerith knocked softly on Leon's and Yuffie's door, hearing nothing, she opened the door a little bit, and stuck her head inside, Leon and Yuffie were cuddled up together in a blanket on the floor next to the scattered playing cards. She smiled as she carefully closed the door behind her. Still grinning, she continued down to the café.

"Goddammit Zephyr!" Cid bellowed.

"Sorry sir." She said looking tired and worn out. She always did what he asked, before he even asked her to do it. To Cid, it was fucking annoying. Anyways, he had turned around about to ask her to store the new items in the back room, when she crashed into him, knocking him down, along with the supplies, and herself. He helped her collect the strewn items, and put them back in the box. She stood up, holding the box, and then made her way to the back room. Shaking his head, Cid called out to her, "I'm going to lunch, be back soon!"

She appeared looking confused, "But sir, it's only 9:00?"

"Point is?" She said nothing. "Okay then, be back around the time I get back."

She watched him leave and sighed, "He's gone, you can come out now."

A sleepy eyed Yuffie opened her eyes; blinking a few times she turned her head to see a still sleeping Leon beside her. She smiled, cuddling up closer to him. She closed her eyes again, pulling the blankets closer around her, feeling his arms tightening around her, she looked up at him to see his eyes open as well, both smiled as he pulled her up to him into a soft kiss. Breaking apart, she opened her mouth to say something when there was a big crashing noise, which sounded like somebody either pushing a pile of crates over, or falling down while on one.

Both sets of eyes widening, they quickly got up and ran to the window. Yuffie, who was still covered in the blanket, pulled the blanket tighter about her as Leon opened the window and a blast of cold winter air hit them. Standing behind him, she tugged his shirt, "Do you see anyone in the alley?" Still looking out the window, he shook his head, "Not that I can see." Shrugging, he turned around and swept her up in his arms, giggling, she pulled herself up to kiss him. They pulled apart, then Leon bent his head down to nuzzle her neck, helplessly, she started giggling again. Whoa, she thought, I've been giggling way too much lately, weird. . .

Pushing open the hotel doors, Sora shivered as the nippy air hit him. Pulling his coat tighter about him, he continued walking toward the café. His mind kept roaming to the girl, no woman, which he had seen yesterday. He was very obsessed with finding out who she was. He was almost desperate, almost as if he'd seen her before. He felt something wet and cold hit his nose, and he stopped walking and looked up at the sky. Snow. It was snowing. Well, he thought as he looked back to in front of him, it's about time, it's December 20th for pete's sake. He kicked some rocks on the ground as he started walking once more. Hearing footsteps, he looked up to see Zephyr walking, well, limping, and rubbing her left arm. She looked up at him, "Don't ask."

"Wasn't gonna," he replied as he continued walking.

Yuffie walked out of Cid's shop, in time to see Sora, drawing nearer. He looks blue doesn't he? She told herself. Wonder what happened to him. As he reached her, she walked out to him.

"Hey Sora! What's up?" She said brightly.

"The sky," he said in a monotones voice.

Her eyes widened at his tone of voice as he walked around her. She turned to watch him continue on his way. His shoulders hunched, and his head down, she thought for a moment.

Suddenly, a big grin formed on her lips.

"That's it!" She cried out. "What's it?" A deep voice asked from behind her. Knowing who it was, she replied, "Nothing, nothing."

Holding hands, Yuffie and Leon ran into the café, just to get away from the blizzard, which had been blowing since about noon. Letting go of his hand, she unzipped her coat, and hung it on the hook, Leon followed suit, then followed her to a booth after ordering two mugs of hot chocolate. Sitting next to Leon, Yuffie looked around the café as he put an arm around her. It was pretty much empty, which was a big surprise figuring on the weather, except for Aerith and Cloud, who were making out in a booth near the back. Rolling her eyes, she leaned into Leon, as the door opened, and a frozen looking person walked in. She appeared to be about as tall as Sora, waist length brown hair, sporting a long wool coat. She walked to the counter, ordered a coffee, and then sat down in the booth next to Leon's and Yuffie's. Yuffie looked up at Leon to see if he was looking at the pretty woman, but he had his eyes closed. The woman took off her coat, and opened a magazine. Just then the door opened yet again, this time the frozen person was Sora, who was pink in the face, and still depressed looking. He looked around to see Aerith and Cloud, then sniggered, then saw Leon and Yuffie and made a weak smile, then his eyes traveled to the woman in the next booth over. He blushed horribly, and turned around, and grabbed his coat, and left before he even got it on all the way. Yuffie sighed, well that was weird.

The next day, Cloud walked into Cid's shop, humming meeting his ears. He looked around to see Yuffie, humming the tune to, Jingle Bells? Now totally and utterly confused, he walked up to her.

"Um, Yuffie?" She looked over at him.

"What?"

"Wasn't it Halloween, like, two days ago?"

"Yea, the author just skipped a month or two, its kinda December 21."

His eyes widened, "It-it is?"

She rolled her eyes, then started singing, "Joy to the world, our teacher's dead, we barbequed her head! And to get rid of the booooody, we flushed it down the poooooty, and around and around it goes! And around and around it goes! And around and around and around, it, GOES!"

Muttering to himself, Cloud walked out of the shop. Smiling, Yuffie continued decorating the small tree on the counter. It had blue, white, and purple lights, and cute little ornaments of deer, snowflakes, and icicles. She smiled to herself, and started humming Grandma Got Ran Over By a Reindeer.

Meanwhile. . .

Sora was sitting on a bench in the square of the Third District. His eyes roamed to the fountain, which sat in the middle of the square, surrounded by bushes and some sidewalk, it's a statue of a maiden standing up with her arms reaching for the sky, with two dolphins, one on either side of her. It's quite beautiful. Usually it has water running, coming out of her hands, and the dolphin's mouths, but in the winter it's turned off. Looking at the maiden's face and her other features, it reminded him of that woman he had seen. Long flowing hair, beautiful eyes, a face showing angelic features. He shook his head, I'm probably all wrong, he thought to himself.

"She seems so different, but also familiar." He rolled his eyes.

"Great, just great, I'm talking to my self." He sighed deeply. He just wished that he wouldn't have run out of the café like he did.

"I just wish I-"He stopped, just then the woman he had seen in the street and at the café, started walking toward him. He gulped as she stopped in front of him. She carefully took off her sunglasses, to show her brown orbs. She smiled, putting her hand out, Sora, opened mouth, blinked a few times, then closing his mouth, slowly shook her hand.

"Hi, my name is Mandolyn. . ."

FLASHBACK

Ten year old Sora skipped along the beach, laughing at something he remembered Riku telling him earlier that day. Suddenly he heard a revving noise above him; he stopped and looked up as a gummi ship cut through the sky. Trying to smooth his flying hair out his face, he turned around, so the wind was blowing his hair away from his face. Just then, something, no someone, fell, or jumped, from the ship, falling fast toward the ocean. Eyes widening, Sora watched as the person got ever closer to the water, as the gummi ship flew off, disappearing into the clouds. Turning around, Sora yelled for Riku, then started running out to the water, he flinched as the person, hit the water, and not resurfacing. Gasping, Sora ran faster, and then dived into the water, now underwater, he reached the girl, her long hair was spread around her pale face. She was unconscious. Sora reached her, and put an arm around her waist, and pulled her up, swimming, he reached to top with her, gasping for air, he started pulling her toward shore. Struggling, he managed to get her to the shore. Breathing heavily, Sora turned her over on to her back, she was pale, and her lips had a tint of blue. He stared down at her, she looked so fragile, but he had no clue who she was or where she is from. About to lose hope, her eyes opened, and she started coughing up water. As she sat up, Sora gently patted her back. As the coughing subsided, she looked around, then at Sora. She moved away from him a little, and then looked around again.

"Where am I?" She asked him, eyes still wide with fright.

"This is Destiny Islands." He said slowly. By the look on her face, she had never heard of it before.

"I-I'm fr-from, I ca-can't remember," she stuttered.

"What's your name? My name is Sora."

Her eyes traveled back to him, "Ma-Mandolyn-my name is Mandolyn."

FLASHBACK ENDS

"Are you okay?" Sora snapped back to reality.

"Yo-your th-the little girl!" She looked confused and taken aback, but she thought for a moment, then peered closer to him.

She gasped, almost dropping her sunglasses. "You're Sora!" Her eyes were wide as she said that.

Sora slid into the booth of the small café in one of the outer districts. It was small and cozy with red sashes over the lamps to give off a reddish light; he turned his gaze to Mandolyn who is sitting to the right of him.

"So," he started awkwardly, "How have you, uh, been?"

She met his eyes, "I've been good, I live about three blocks from here in an apartment." Averting his gaze, she gazed around the room. A waitress walked up to their table, and set menus in front of them. Both opened their menus and went through them.

Holding her hot chocolate mug between her hands, Yuffie looked up at Leon as he took a sip and set his on the table.

"Earlier today, when I came out of Cid's shop, what did you mean by "that's it"?" When he finished, Yuffie took another sip of her hot chocolate. Getting comfortable against him, she looked around the café.

"Well, have you noticed that Sora's been acting, well, uh, strange?" Leon nodded.

"Well, he's been acting down in the poops. And I noticed how when he came in here this morning, he saw that lady, and he just booked it."

"So?" Leon said.

"Don't you think it means anything?" Leon thought for a moment.

"You don't think-?"

"Exactly, he's met her before, and has the hots for her." Leon looked skeptical.

"Oh come on! Didn't you see the look on his face? And he blushed so bad I thought he was going to explode!" Eyes widening, Leon grinned, something you don't see very often.

Wondering what was so funny that he actually grinned, she asked him, "What?"

Not answering her, he looked down to her, and raised his eyebrows, and almost as if he was telepathically telling her something, her eyes widened, and she smacked him one.

"Well, after I left Destiny Islands with my new, foster parents, I found out later that my parents had been killed in a fire, and the arsonists had kidnapped me." As she paused, she took a sip of her coffee, looking over the rim of her mug at Sora. Swallowing the hot liquid, she continued, "Then, when I turned 15, I moved out of my foster parent's house, oh, by the way, we lived in the 7th district, about 100 miles from here. It's a really small town, anyways; I worked for a while as an assistant manager at a department store in the 6th district, about 10 miles from my parent's house. Then, I was tired of my tiny apartment, and my job, my boss was a real prick. So when I turned 16 I moved out here, got a bigger apartment, and work steady as a veterinarian. I own two horses, and two cats." As she finished, she took a deep breath and sipped her coffee.

While she was talking, Sora sat listening attentively. She has lead such a normal life compared to me, Sora thought to himself.

Interrupting his thoughts, she started talking again, "I heard somewhere that you were the Keyblade master." Silence.

"Thank you." Looking up from his "interesting" napkin, Sora looked at her confused.

"For what?"

Almost on the brink of tears, brown eyes met blue, "I would wake up every morning, terrified, because I knew heartless would be coming. I had nightmares of being taken by those creatures, almost every night I would cry myself to sleep, hoping and praying that I would wake up alive." She looked down, Sora watched as one tear ran down her face. She quickly whipped it away, and then blew her nose.

Sighing, she looked back up to him, her eyes were full of pain, "Then one day, about 3 months before they disappeared, they took-, th-they ki-killed them!" Now crying she covered her face with her hands, softly crying into them.

"Who?" Sora asked gently. She looked up with sparkling eyes, tears running down her cheeks.

"My foster parents." As she blew her nose, Sora understood why this was so upsetting for her, she had never told anyone, or never had anyone to tell. She finished her coffee, and then stood up, putting on her jacket.

"I need to be getting home." Sora stood up and pulled on his jacket as well. As she turned to leave, he stopped her, before she knew it; arms were embracing her in a friendly hug. She put her arms around his neck, resting her head against his.

"If you ever need anything, or someone to talk to, I'm here." Sora whispered in her ear. They broke apart, and she said, "Thank you." Smiling weakly, she turned, and made her way to the door; she stepped out into the snow, and disappeared into the billowing whiteness. Sighing, Sora made his way out of the small café. As he passed the fountain on his way to the hotel, he stopped and looked up at it. As he stared at the maidens face, he remembered Mandolyn's story, it was so sad, it sounded like something from Yuffie or Leon's past. Stepping into the 1st district, Sora shivered as the wind picked up, he looked up in time to see two people, one of them really big looking, the other taller and thinner, run into a nearby alley. As Sora stopped in front of the alley, he looked inside, and gasped. It was Riku, and, and. . .

"Zephyr?"


	5. 5:Not so secret santa

**Happy Holidays**

**Chapter Five: Not so secret santa**

**Disclaimer: I could give a shit because you already know what I'm going to say.**

(A/N: I guess the title is self explanatory. To sum up, people get people presents and Yuffie has a stalker. Do I need to say anything else?)

Yuffie strolled down the street, glancing into each store, looking for something. That morning, they had drawn names for secret santa, she had gotten Cloud. And she had absolutely no idea what to get him. Even though that was the only person they were allowed to buy presents for, she was going to get Leon something; what, she didn't know yet.

As she reached the end of the street, and the line of stores stopped, she sighed, and sat down on a bench; it was hopeless. She watched the noon shoppers go in and out of stores, eating, conversing, and shopping. Then her eyes strayed to the fountain that stood in the middle of the square; a maiden stood with arms reaching over her head; with two dolphins on either side of her, water rising around the dolphins. Yuffie loved to look at it, it was so beautiful. Her eyes dropped down to the bottom of it, and noticed a young man staring at her, when she looked at him; he dropped his eyes back to his newspaper that he was "reading". She began looking around again, watching various people, when her eyes came back to the young man, he was staring at her again. Her eyes widened, and he smiled. Ooh, Yuffie thought rudely, looking away.

"Cute cute, _real_ cute" She muttered to herself. She looked back to find him walking toward her.

"Goddammit, now I have a stalker." She murmured as he neared her. She suddenly grinned, imagining Leon if he were here. She stopped chuckling as he walked up to her.

With a fake, big smile, he brought his hand out; she looked at his outstretched hand then back to his face, and with a forced smile, slowly shook his hand. Before she could remove her hand from his grasp, he brought it up to his mouth, and gently kissed it. She ripped her hand from his grasp, and laid it under her bag, secretly whipping her hand on her shorts.

"Do I, _know_ you?" She asked slowly as he sat down next to her.

"No, my name is Fernand." Grimacing at his heavy French accent, she looked around for Leon, or at least Cloud.

"And you are?" She looked back to him, thinking quickly, she replied, "Um, Rose." Her eyes widened as he closed his eyes.

"Rose, Rose, Rose, such a beautiful name." Getting ready to puke, she turned her head away, concentrating on looking through crowds for a familiar face.

"Vat are you looking for?" She grinned, bingo, Cloud. She turned back to him, gathering up her stuff.

"I'm terribly sorry, but I must go. And even though we're having so much," she paused, "_fun_, I must depart." With that she stood up.

"I hope to see you again!" She heard what he said as she walked away.

"God I hope not." As she got closer to Cloud, he turned to see her, and smiled, then frowned as he watched the French guy follow Yuffie. Seeing his frown, she stopped and turned to see Fernand following her. Now getting pissed, she hurried to Cloud, and then grabbed his arm with her free hand.

About to ask who the hell was that guy, she interrupted him, "Come on, hurry up." Weaving through the dense crowd, he managed to stay on their heels. Finding an alley, she pulled Cloud into an alley, and sighed as the man walked past without noticing. Finally releasing her death grip on Cloud's arm, she breathed a sigh of relief as she rested against the wall.

"Who the hell was that?" She looked over to him, "Apparently my new stalker, come on."

She carefully walked out of the alley, pulling Cloud with her, both still panting; they looked around, but didn't see him.

Leon walked out of a store, and his eyes widened as he watched Yuffie and Cloud walk out of an alley, panting, and looking around. He watched her stand up straight, say something to Cloud, resulting in Cloud laughing, and then they proceeded into the street, with Yuffie still holding his arm.

"You can let go now." She looked back to him.

"What?" His eyes darted to his arm and back to her own. She blushed and let go.

"Sorry, I was getting scared there for a moment," she stopped as she saw Leon making his way towards them. When Leon reached them Cloud was about to open his mouth when Yuffie grabbed both of them, and yanked them in front of her, then pulled them into the alley. About to ask what the hell she was doing, Cloud noticed that guy walking by, and not looking happy. Now thoroughly confused, Leon turned to Yuffie when she let go of them.

"Oh, um, I have a stalker." She smiled pathetically, and then watching Leon's face go red, she quickly said, "Just kidding, I just didn't want to stay out in the street." His face went back to normal color, and he sighed, "Come one, let's go." She looked at Cloud as Leon put an arm around her shoulders, he looked to Leon and back to her, but she silently pleaded with him, and he sighed. She smiled, and then continued walking with them out of the alley.

SORA'S POV:

I sighed as I looked down at the little piece of paper that read the name Zephyr. I didn't have the slightest clue as to what to get her for Christmas. God, I hate secret santa, it's such a stupid thing; I can't believe I did this. I stopped as I reached a shop that read "Weaponry of the Worlds" on a sign. I walked in, and was simply amazed. There were weapons from very world, of every size, and varied from pocket knives to broad swords. I walked to each shelf, examining each item, trying to find something that fit Zephyr's weaponry choice.

I looked up as a very obese man walked in from a back room. He was unshaven, almost bald, and smoking a cigarette. I winced as he looked over to me. He walked up to me, and I was positive there was an earthquake going on somewhere. He reached me, then took a long drawl from his cigarette, then blew the smoke in my face.

"Whatcha lookin fer?" He asked huskily, his breath smelt strongly of tobacco and alcohol. Trying to breath, without choking to death from the man's odor, I looked back to the shelves.

"Something small, but can do a lot of damage." The man made a low chuckle, and motioned for me to follow me. He led me to a back room, which was full of more weapons. He looked around, continuously smoking his cigarette, and finally found what he was looking for. He walked over to me, and handed me a small, long wooden box; the wood appeared to be mahogany. It had carvings of horse heads on the lid, their manes flying wildly; in such detail. I carefully opened the lid and found a small knife. The handle was carved out of ivory, and had a carving of a herd of horses running through a field. The handle was about 7 or 8 inches long, and the blade itself was about 5 inches. The blade came out straight, and at the top curved slightly, kinda like an elf shoe. The sharp side of the blade came out like a razor. I just stood there, staring at it. I couldn't believe I found it. I carefully put it back in the little box. Then I looked up to the fat guy.

"I'll take it."

Riku smiled to himself, as he looked down at the silver shurikens. They were a very strong type of silver, and looked a lot better than hers.

"She's gonna love them." He said to no in particular. He looked up to see Zephyr walking toward him. He slid the star he had been looking at back into the package. She reached him, looking quite pissed.

"I hate secret santa." She turned around, and continued walking with him.

"Why?" He asked her confused.

"Nobody will tell me who has me."

"Well, you're not supposed to know anyways."

"SO! Wait, do you have me?" She asked looking at him suspiciously.

"No! For the last time, I do not have you!"

"Well who do you have?"

"That's for me to know, and for you to find out."

"When?"

"When I give her my present."

"Ha! So, it's a she. Hmmm, that rules out Aerith."

"Why Aerith?"

"Because Leon has her name."

"How do you know that?"

"He told me."

"How in hell did you get him to tell you?"

"Simple, I told him who has Yuffie."

"Yo-you-"

"Okay, I already know you have Yuffie, I was just messing around."

"How did you find out?"

"Sora told me!"

"Dammit! I told him not to tell anybody!"

"Why not tell anybody?"

"It is supposed to be SECRET SANTA!"

"Geez, okay, chill."

"Do you know who has my name?"

"No, but I intend to find out."

Yuffie turned around as Sora walked up to her.

"Can I ONLY get my secret santa a gift?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"I thought you were the rule person."

"Okay then, yeah, sure, but you still have to get your secret santa something."

As he walked away, he yelled to her, "I already got my present!"

"Well, shit, I wish I could just ask Cloud what he wants. It would make my life so much easier."

"So, you have Cloud?" Yuffie screamed as Leon walked up next to her.

"Don't do that! God! You scared me to death! Yes I do have Cloud."

"Well I have Aerith, and I have no clue what to get her."

"Why did you tell me? It's supposed to be secret santa."

"Well, too late for that, I told Zephyr who I have, and then she told me who has you."

She turned to him, "Who has me? Who has me? Who has me? Who has me?"

He smiled as he wrapped his arms around her, "I thought it was SECRET santa?"

"Please tell me? Please?" He sighed.

"Riku."

"Please switch me! I'm begging you! Please?"

"No! I'm not switching you! For the last time no!"

"I know you don't want Leon, and I don't want Cid! You know Cid better than I do!"

"Point is? Hey! You wouldn't know what to get Leon if your life depended on it!"

"Well, you- I could ask Yuffie!"

"Got a point there." Zephyr stood thinking for a moment, and then sighed.

"Okay, I'll switch you, here." She handed Kairi her little piece of paper that read Leon, and took hers that read Cid.

"Thank you thank you thank you!"

"Just how much caffeine _did_ you have today?" Zephyr asked her as she jumped around excitedly.

She stopped, "Oh, shut up."

"Hey Sora!" Sora turned around to meet Yuffie.

"You've gotten your secret santa something already right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I have no idea whatsoever to get Cloud. Can you help me find something? Please?"

"Don't you give me those puppy eyes, no stop it! Sto-okay, okay, you win, I'll help you."

Yuffie danced around him, "Yay! Yay!"

"So, where do we start?"

"I'm just going to tell you a couple of stores that I know, if they don't work out, come back to me okay?"

"Okay!" She waited as Sora wrote down 3 stores on a piece of paper, and then handed them to her.

Squealing, Yuffie ran off in search of the stores. Sora watched her skip off and sighed. He turned around and made his way back to the hotel. He stopped and his eyes widened and he saw someone through the window in a store. It was. . .

"Mandolyn," he breathed.

"What in hell am I supposed to get a 16 year old boy for Christmas." Cid muttered to himself as he made his way to the café for dinner. As he entered the café, "There's Another Santa Clause" met his ears. Grimacing, he made his way to the bar. As he sat down next to Yuffie, he noticed three empty shot glasses in front of her.

"Yuffie? You drink?" She looked up to him, and then squinted.

"I do now, Cloud? That you?" Cid rolled his eyes as he ordered a beer.

"I'm Cid, not Cloud, and how in hell did you mix _us_ up?" After ordering another shot of whiskey, she turned to him, then after drinking the whole thing said, "I have no idea."

Before she could order another drink, he stopped her.

"Don't drink anymore, its not healthy."

"You drink 24/7!"

"Three things, one, I'm 46 years old, two, your 18."

"And three?"

"I don't come home to Leon."

"Good point." She set down the glass then her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out.

Leon looked up as the door opened, and Cid came in carrying a sleeping Yuffie. Leon shot up, and ran over to him, taking Yuffie gently from Cid, cradling her in his arms, he looked up to Cid.

"What happened?"

"She had a little, okay a lot to drink."

"Thanks for bringing her over."

"No problem." Cid said as he closed the door.

Leon carefully laid Yuffie on the bed, taking off her coat, and then took off her shoes and socks. He pulled her up to the pillows, and then put the covers over her. She rolled over, opening glazed over eyes.

"Le-Leon?" She asked, and then passed out again.

Christmas Eve, they all sat around a table in the hotel. The gifts were in front of each person, with there name on it. But not all of them were wrapped; Sora's is a paper bag, taped close, of course, what more could you expect from Cid? Everybody was looking around at each other, everyone knowing who their sec-, well, santa was. When nobody moved, Yuffie sighed, and reached out to her present, and started unwrapping it. Once she got it unwrapped, she opened the small package; she gasped as she took one of the shurikens out, she looked up to Riku, with a surprised face.

"Thank you." He shrugged his shoulders, looking everywhere but her. Sitting next to Yuffie, Leon grabbed his present. Ripping it open, he looked up uneasily at Kairi, and carefully took it out. It was a bracelet with spikes, the spikes hot pink against the black bracelet. He forced a smile at Kairi, and made a strained thank you.

"So much for asking Yuffie, _Kai_." Zephyr muttered, getting a glare from the older girl.

Zephyr carefully picked her small present up, and examined it. Glancing over at Sora, she noticed he was blushing and staring at the table top. She looked back to the gift, and carefully removed the shiny light blue wrapping paper. And gasped as she looked upon the wooden box with the horses, she glanced up at Sora, he was bright red. With shaking fingers, she undid the latch, and cautiously opened it up. As she laid eyes on the knife, her eyes were wide, she had not expected it. She looked up to Sora with misty eyes; he was, if possible, a brighter shade of red. She carefully brought it out examining it. Aerith gradually reached out to the badly wrapped present; which was wrapped from a cut up paper bag. She opened it to find about fifty candy canes. Trying not to laugh, she thanked Leon.

Sora, grabbed the, paper bag, looking around and gulping, he tore the tape of, then slowly, and ever cautiously opened the bag. He pulled out a beer, and a pack of condoms. Sitting next to Cid, Aerith swatted him.

"Cid!" She screeched.

"What?" Cid asked innocently. Sora was chuckling as he set them back in the bag. Cloud reached for his, it was wrapped in snowflake paper, and was a circle. He tore off the paper, then opened the circular tin, then looked up to glare daggers at Yuffie. She grinned then shot up as Cloud started running after her. When he jumped out of his seat, a big padlock fell out of the tin. Ignoring Cloud and Yuffie who were running around the table; Kairi took hold of her present, which of course was wrapped neatly with beautiful purple paper. She carefully, not ripping the paper, took the paper off, and then opened a small box. After thanking Aerith for the pretty earrings; she set them back in the box.

Cid grabbed his present, it made a clinking noise, like to bottles bumping each other. He opened the bag, and found two beers, and a bottle of pills for drunken people, he grinned, and thanked her.

Last but not least, Riku grasped his present. He tore off the paper, and burst out laughing, then laughing so hard, he fell out of his chair, red in the face from laughing; he put it in his jacket pocket so nobody can see it.

"Let us see it! Come on!" Everybody made a mad dash to tackle Riku, but he scrambled out of his chair, and sprinted from the room, with everybody but Leon and Yuffie, laughing on his heels. Yuffie sighed, and then took something from her pocket. She handed Leon the small wrapped box. Then he handed her a present too. Leon opened his first, his eyes widened as he looked up to her; he smiled as he looked back down to the necklace. She in turn opened Leon's present, it was a folded up picture. She carefully unfolded it and gasped in shock; it was a tiny collage of her mother and father, standing behind Cloud, Aerith, Riku, Zephyr, Kairi, Sora, Leon and Yuffie, and they were standing in front of Yuffie's house in Hollow Bastian. She looked up to him, with tears running down her cheeks, he wrapped his arms around her, and she buried her face in his shoulder. Leaning back slightly, she said to him in a quiet voice.

"Thank you, it's the best present I've ever gotten." They kissed, and then they walked over to the window, and watched Riku being chased by everybody except Cid, who was watching. They were all laughing, and then Zephyr caught up to him, then side tackled him, they went laughing to the ground, then everybody else started a dog pile. As they were watching them, Leon took the necklace out of the box, and then put it around his neck. The small lion pendant bounced once off his chest. Then he put his arm back around Yuffie's shoulders as she pressed the picture of her family and friends to her chest. She smiled as she watched them down below. No, she thought, their all my family.

(A/N: Gags Sappy ending, and sorry for not including Mandolyn very much, I apologize.)


	6. 6:Soon, very soon

**Happy Holidays**

**Chapter Six: Soon, very soon**

**Disclaimer: I don't care either way.**

"Put it on!"

"I am not going to put it on."

"Come on! Put it on!"

"No! I'm not putting it on!"

Pouting Yuffie snatched the bracelet up, and examined it. She looked up to Leon with puppy dog eyes.

"Please put it on! It will make Kairi feel good! Come on!"

He looked up to her, sighed, took the bracelet from her, looked at it for a second, and then set it down on the table.

"No." He stated sharply, standing up and leaving the room. Yuffie grumbled something about an emotionless bastard, and then followed him out of the hotel room.

"You little bitch! You get back here!" Mandolyn hurried out of her foster father's apartment, pulling her green woolen coat tighter about her. She quickly whipped her tears away as she tried to block out her foster father's ranting. Sniffing she turned into a different street, and broke into a run.

Panting, she stopped as she reached the doors to the third district. She looked up to the doors, still breathing hard. She didn't know where to go; she obviously couldn't go home, not to her bastard foster father. Especially after now.

As she walked through the street she looked around on both sides of the street. What she is looking for, she doesn't know. Who who who, who can I go to? She asked herself continuously. Wait. . . Sora! She hurried through the doors, and then stopped as she gazed upon the big crowd of the market place.

"I'll have to cut through an alley," she said to herself, and turned into the alleyway. She felt the rain drops on her head, and quickened her pace. She pulled the coat tighter around her, as she looked up to see four men blocking the alley. She stopped, her breath coming out shallow and sharp. She felt the rain and cold closing in about her as the men walked up to her. They were ugly, wearing black pants and jackets, one appeared to be Mexican, one was white, one was black, and the other one looked Indian, and looked like raping thieving bastards. She took a step back; she didn't like the looks on their faces. Now terrified, she figured that she was going to die. Well, after they rape her numbers of times probably. Hoping that they were unable to run, she turned around swiftly and started running. They were after her in about a second, they grabbed her and pulled her down to the ground, and they tore her coat open and ripped her dress open. Getting sick of her screaming, one on the men covered her mouth with his hand. She quickly bit his hand, and he yelped, and then smacked her in the face.

Just when they were about to pull her underwear down, the man kneeling between her legs, started unzipping his pants. Just then, a figure appeared, and threw him off of her, then started pounding the other guys' faces in. While he mercilessly beat up the men, she pulled the coat around, as her dress was completely torn in half. Because it was dark and pouring, she couldn't tell who it was. Her rescuer finished off the last guy, then turned around and fled.

Surprised that he had run after saving her life, she stood up to try and follow him, but was too slow. She sighed as she stared down the alley into the street. She heard the men stirring, and she quickly made her way the way she was going in the first place.

She got to the end of the alley, then turned around and stared down it; she sighed, and made her way to the hotel.

"She's out there, and I want her back here." He paused, taking deep breaths, "And I want her unharmed. Ya got that? Can you handle this?" He put the cigarette to his lips; he then took a long drawl from it, then removed it and blew out a ton of smoke. "No I want you to do this; I wouldn't trust Lou to go buy a pack of cigarettes and beer!" He waited listening to the person on the other line. "You get her back here, and this time, she ain't gonna get away from me." He stated with a deep husky voice. "Good, and Jack, try to hurry, I have things. . . planned." He started laughing, sounding more like a small rumbling. Sam Doros slammed the grey phone down, and smoking his cigarette he looked out of his window into the street.

He took one last drawl, then blowing out the smoke, he put the cigarette out in the small astray.

"She's gone too far this time."

"I still don't believe you "fell"." Yuffie stated quite plainly; wrapping Sora's hand in a bandage.

"I fell!" He said defensively, wincing as she finished wrapping it.

"Your knuckles are all bloody and cut open, like they opened on somebody's face." She said, staring him straight into the eyes.

He looked down, flexing his fingers. After a couple minutes of silence, Yuffie sighed, standing up.

"Come on, Aerith has better healing skills than I do." He stood up and followed her out of his room. As they walked out of the room, Yuffie watched him, he has some emotion on his face, but she doesn't know what it is. She shook her head, and followed him out of the hotel, in search of Aerith.

Mandolyn pushed the doors open to the café, getting out of the cold and icy sleet, which had taken the place of the rain. She brushed her coat off, and pulled it tighter about her, taking in the room. It was crowded, almost all the booths occupied, except for one, near the back. She made her way to the booth, sliding into it, she ordered a coffee, and then sat back, looking around the café.

"That'll do it for now." Aerith finished wrapping up his hand. He thanked her, than grabbed his coat, leaving Cid's Shop. He sighed as he stopped; watching the snowflakes fall to the ground. He shook his head confusedly. He still wasn't use to the weather in Traverse Town.

He made his way slowly to the café; shivering from the cold. The snow was starting to come down harder, making it difficult to see where you're going. He looked up as four men approached him. Sora stopped waiting for them. He'd seen them before, but only once. They looked like they're part of a mob. Black pants, black leather jackets, sunglasses, you know the sort.

The one walking in front of the group, seemed to be the leader; but something told Sora that he too, had a boss. They reached him, and the man in front slowly looked Sora up and down, face expressionless.

"Can I ask you a question?" Then man asked in a deep, professional sounding voice. Sora shifted his body weight, trying to make a comfortable standing position.

Sora cleared his throat nervously, "Sure, what about?" Sora said, trying to act casual.

Then man reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a folded up picture.

"Have you seen this woman before?" Then man asked, unfolding the picture, holding it up in front of Sora's face. He looked at it, eyes went wide for a second, then returned to normal. Looking back up to the man, Sora shook his head.

"I've never seen her in my life." He watched Sora, wondering if he should believe him.

He took a deep breath, then folded the picture up, returning it to his coat pocket.

"Thank you," the man said, nodded his head curtly, then turned around, and walked to the front of the other men, then they followed behind him. Sora watched them leave; he knew who was in that picture, and he was going to find her before they did.

Mandolyn finished her coffee, then stood up to leave. She had some money that she had lifted from her foster father, so she needed to find a clothing store. She made her way out of the café; she stepped to the snow covered ground, She took only one step, when someone grabbed her and pulled into an alley. She struggled as a hand was placed over her mouth, about to bite his hand, her eyes fell on the men walking past, she knew them, her fathers hit men. She froze, and the hand loosened. They soon disappeared, and she whipped around to face . . .

"Sora?"

Three hours earlier

Riku closed the newspaper as Zephyr walked up, with that look in her eyes. Grinning, he tossed the paper aside as she straddled him.

"You know, we shouldn't be doing this where people could see us." He murmured as she wrapped her slim arms around his neck as she pressed her self against him with his arms around her waist.

"You know you want to." He didn't get to answer because she started kissing him passionately.

"OH SWEET JESUS!" She sprang off his lap, both looking like deer caught in headlights. Leon slowly scratched the back of his head, looking slightly embarrassed. He sucked both lips into his mouth, looking away from them, trying not to cry. He dragged his finger across his lips before nervously rubbing his chin.

"I-I'll go." He turned to go, still red in the face. "And I'll pretend that never happened." He continued muttering to himself as he left Cid's shop. They burst out laughing as she sat back down in his lap.

"Okay, that was defiantly worth it."

"I am not going to do that! Come on that's disgusting!" Sora threw his head back.

"Come on you have to! I've got to get them back." Yuffie bit her lip and thought for a second. She fought with her self for a few minutes, before sighing and agreeing to it.

"YES! Thank you so much!" Yuffie rolled her eyes. But before Sora could walk out, she grabbed his collar and shoved him against the wall.

"Squall does not find out, got it? You get someone to distract him and keep him away." Sora looked at her confusedly.

"Why?" She rolled her eyes, letting him go.

"Want to die soon?" His eyes got wide.

"Gotcha, seeya in three in a half hour. Be ready, and I'll get rid of Leon, don't worry I will." Yuffie watched him walk away and sighed again.

"What have I gotten myself into?"

20 minutes after Sora found Mandolyn

"Hey, stop necking, that's disgusting, cut it out!" Riku pulled away from Zephyr and she sighed.

"What do ya want old man?" He glared at her before lighting a cigarette.

"Yuffie wants you two in the green room, she said its important."

"Is something wrong?" Leon appeared at the doorway with his question, avoiding looking at the couple. Cid nodded no.

"I need you to help me with something in the back." Nodding, he followed him as Riku and Zephyr started for the hotel.

Sora looked down to his watch, 4:30, shit. He looked up to Mandolyn who was buying some pants and a shirt in the department store. He quickly walked inside and called her over.

"I have to go do something, where do you want to meet afterwards?" She thought for a second, before scribbling an address on a piece of paper and handing it to him. He waved goodbye before running towards the district doors.

"Where is he?" Yuffie asked anxiously to herself as the minutes ticked by. She suddenly heard panting as Sora came flying through the balcony doors. He stood in front of her, trying to breathe.

"They just entered the hotel, ready?" She grinned.

"As ready as you are, I'm sure."

"Wonder what she wants?" Riku shrugged and as they reached the green room, where moaning could be heard. Eyebrows arched, they grinned, and pushed open the door. Two people were wrapped up in blankets on the bed.

"Leon, get off of her for a second, jesuuuus," It just occurred to her that he was down with Cid. They looked at each other then back to the bed where Yuffie fell off flushed and panting. Her eyes widened in fear as another head popped up.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Leon's head shot up as the scream consisting of female and male voices floated through the doors; another scream ripped through the air as faint laughing could be heard.

Yuffie rolled off, laughing so hard she could barely breath. Sora fell off the other side, crying as hard as he was laughing. He helped her stand where they leaned against the wall and she pulled her shirt up; she had only pulled it down a little bit so she had to cover up with a blanket to make it look real.

"Whoo, that was good." Sora nodded, then sighed, sliding to the floor. Yuffie cracked her neck, then glanced down to him.

"How long do you think it'll take them to realize we weren't really in bed together?" Sora thought for a second as he fought to contain his breathing.

"Soon, very soon."

(A/N: I know got get rid of this story, but I read through it and it was pretty funny, so I'm continuing it.)


End file.
